Sword of Nikephos
A shattered blade marked the end of Paphlagon's defiance, to the Imperium it was just another world out of countless others taken in the Emperor's grand crusade, the last of their resistance quelled by the lord of mankind himself in their capital's estate. Men at arms loyal to the end to their masters, fought tooth and nail to keep those who remained alive while most already lay dead in the High Keep. It is this inspired loyalty that gave the great conqueror pause in his duel with the last of the world's noble line, a woman by the name of Nikephos Aegeos Doukas clad in elegant powered malle held but a hilt before her in guard as his blade shattered hers managing to just graze her cheek. She fought to protect the heir and Lord-King to be Komnenos Demophilus Doukas and for her nobility the Emperor showed mercy and spared the lives of her and her remaining bloodline in return for their oaths of service and amalgamation into his growing Imperium of Man. The shards of Nikephos's warsword were kept on display as the world was brought under Imperial rule within the High Keep of the capital, a symbol not just of their defeat but of the valor and nobility shown by both sides of the conflict. Upon their first tithe to his great crusade, the forces of Paphlagon were led by a decendant of the one who brought about the now salvation of their people, a man named Leonidas Agean Nikephos Doukas whom was gifted with the shards now reforged in the fires of the Emperor's forges as a symbol of their place within his crusade, and as generations lived and died across the stars it was passed down, each Nikephos inheriting both blade and position as the head of Paphlagon's crusading force. As the planet's manufactorums were modified by the Tech-cult of mars and members of it's population were selected to pilot the mighty gifts of their god, the blade now known as the Sword of Nikephos became less a practical instrument of war and more a display of position within the family, being passed on either with the retirement of a pilot or more commonly their death. Due to the nature of mechanized warfare upon the death of a Knight's pilot what remains of the sword is fervantly retrieved and returned to the omnissian artificers to be returned to the glory first ordered by the Emperor, though bearing the cracks and damage of its shatterings like a veteran bears his scars. In the year 577.M37 the blade vanished with the death of Galen Nikephos Doukas, thought to be vaporised in the blast of his Knight Armor's engine going critical only to be found within the Nikephos family vaults over two millenia later reforged to the same detail as it was in its first rebirth. how and when it arrived has remained a mystery as it is not mentioned anywhere in the well kept ledgers and histories of the family since it's loss. Category:Weapon Category:Setting Category:40K